Cup O’ Joe: Salute to area grads

High school gymnasiums are once again echoing the chords of “Pomp and Circumstance” as graduation ceremonies are taking center stage. Hodgdon and Katahdin celebrated their commencement exercises Friday and Saturday respectively. Houlton and East Grand confer diplomas Thursday evening, while Southern Aroostook Community School holds its ceremony Friday evening and Greater Houlton Christian Academy has its event Saturday morning.
    Not much has changed in graduation ceremonies in the 23 years since I walked the aisle of Houlton High School. Valedictorians and salutatorians give speeches offering words of advice to their fellow classmates, as if they somehow have insight into what the road of life has in store for them. Today’s speeches are filled with references to “Facebook,” and “Ipads,” yet traditional nods to Robert Frost and the “Road Not Taken” remain as popular as ever.
Of the two graduations I covered over the weekend, one of the speeches struck a little too close to home when Hodgdon salutatorian Erik Ryan addressed the crowd.
“Why can’t we keep on having the time of our lives into our 40s and 50s?” he said. “Why can’t we be the ones that make the younger generation say ‘Wow, I can’t wait to be middle-aged!’”
Ouch. I never really thought (or wanted to admit) that I fell into that category.
Much has changed in terms of technology in the lifetime of this year’s grads. Laptops and tablets are replacing textbooks and notepads on an alarmingly fast track. It’s almost scary to think how much farther it will go in the years ahead. Will there eventually come a time when teaching handwriting disappears from our school systems?
Most of this year’s graduates were born in 1994, a year in which the average cost of a new home was $119,050; average annual income was $37,070; the cost of gasoline was $1.09; the average price of a movie ticket was $4.08; the average cost of a new car was $12,350; and a loaf of bread cost $1.59, while a dozen eggs were 86 cents.
Some of the notable events from 1994 were: Tonya Harding won the national figure skating championship, only to have the title stripped from her after evidence revealed she plotted an attack on skating rival Nancy Kerrigan; OJ Simpson fled police in the infamous live footage of him riding in a white Ford Bronco; Major League Baseball players were on strike, causing the season to be cancelled; the Whitewater scandal investigation began; Netscape Navigator was released and became the market leader for browsing a new thing called the Internet; Kurt Cobain, lead singer of the alternative rock band Nirvana, committed suicide.
The staff at The Houlton Pioneer Times extends best wishes to all of the area graduates. You are our future and it will be interesting to see where that future leads us all.
Joseph Cyr is a staff writer for The Houlton Pioneer Times. He can be reached at pioneertimes@nepublish.com or 532-2281.